Guitar Ensemble Anecdotes - The Splinter Group

The new classmates eyed me up and down nervously.

I walked round, slowly, inspecting their guitars.
Taking each in turn, I looked over it, ran my fingers up and down it, and silently handed it back.
My shoes clicked on the hard wooden floor as I moved from player to player.
People looked at the floor to avoid my gaze. The air was tense. And I was giving nothing away.

Suddenly I chanced on a ply-fronted guitar with a damaged front. The player had foolishly attempted to disguise the damage by keeping a plectrum in the split, but my eagle eye spotted the splintered fibres and I checked the severity of the damage.

"How did it happen?" I asked.
"My mate did it", came the reply.
"Did he catch it on the edge of a table?"
"No, he hit me on the nose with it"